Pendulum

A man labeled “Consumer,” tied to a bed with cords labeled “Graft Tariff,” watches as a pendulum labeled “Cost of Living” with a sharp blade affixed to the bottom swings over his body, coming closer to cutting him in half. Caption: “The pit and the pendulum,” by Edgar Allan Poe, tells of a victim of the Spanish Inquisition doomed to watch a knife-like pendulum that swung nearer and nearer to his heart.

comments and context

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-05-26

A bear labeled “N.Y. Democracy” climbs a tree labeled “New York” and “N.Y. State Patronage Hive” to get at the honey. However, a block of wood labeled “Tammany Kelly” suspended by a rope labeled “60,000 voters” keeps getting in the bear’s way. Caption: Democratic Bear “If it wasn’t for that log, I’d have had that honey long ago, and the more I thrust it away the harder it hits me!”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1882-08-16

Creator(s)

Gillam, Bernhard, 1856-1896

A large, rotund male figure, as a pendulum labeled “Vox Populi,” swings between San Francisco on the left, labeled “Down with Reform” and “Good Government Defeat,” and New York City on the right, labeled “Down with Tammany” and “Good Government Victory.”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1909-11-24

Creator(s)

Glackens, L. M. (Louis M.), 1866-1933